Trump signs order to pay TSA employees after Congress fails to agree on
DHS funding
[March 28, 2026]
By KEVIN FREKING, LISA MASCARO and JOEY CAPPELLETTI
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Friday signed a promised
executive action to pay Transportation Security Administration employees
after a bid to end the shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security
abruptly fell apart in Congress.
Trump signed the action with an eye toward easing long security lines at
many of the nation’s top airports.
“America’s air travel system has reached its breaking point,” Trump said
in the memo authorizing the payments. He added, "I have determined that
these circumstances constitute an emergency situation compromising the
Nation’s security.”
Trump said his administration would use “funds that have a reasonable
and logical nexus to TSA operations” for the payments. In a statement
Friday, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said TSA workers
“should begin seeing paychecks as early as Monday.”
While Trump's action could help ease the plight of air travelers, it
does little to resolve the DHS shutdown that has jammed airports and
imposed financial hardship on thousands of federal workers. The House
and Senate ended the week by passing vastly different bills, creating a
new impasse as lawmakers leave Washington for a two-week recess.
The shutdown of Homeland Security will reach 44 days on Sunday,
eclipsing the record 43-day shutdown last fall that affected all of the
federal government.
House Republicans reject Senate deal
The Senate passed a funding deal early Friday, but blowback from House
Republicans came quickly. House Speaker Mike Johnson, upon opening the
chamber for business, accused Democrats of playing a dangerous game and
said he needed to talk with fellow Republicans about how to proceed.
After a lengthy conference call, Johnson blasted the Senate's action and
announced that the House would be going in a different route. “This
gambit that was done last night is a joke,” Johnson said.
Instead, the House on Friday night passed a bill to fund the entire
department through May 22. The vote was 213-203. Johnson said he had
spoken with Trump about the House Republican plan and the president
supported it.
House Republicans were livid that the bill passed by the Senate does not
fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol. Democrats
refused to fund those departments without changes to immigration
enforcement practices.
"We're going to do something different,” Johnson said. He challenged the
Senate to take up the House's short-term fix to fund Homeland Security
into May.
But senators left town after voting to fund most of DHS, so it would
take time for them to return once the House passes a different measure.
And even if they were to return, Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer
made clear the House GOP plan would be “dead on arrival in the Senate,
and Republicans know it.”
House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries said the Senate-passed bill
would clear the House with Republican and Democratic votes if Johnson
would allow it to be voted on.
“This could end, and should end, today,” Jeffries said.
What's in the Senate compromise
Senators worked through the night to approve a bill by voice vote that
would fund much of Homeland Security, including the Federal Emergency
Management Agency, the Coast Guard and TSA.
Senate Republicans said they were disappointed by the lack of funding
for ICE and Border Patrol, but noted that immigration enforcement has
remained largely uninterrupted. That's because the GOP’s big tax cuts
bill that Trump signed into law last year funneled billions of dollars
in extra funds to DHS, including $75 billion for ICE operations.
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A TSA agent assists travelers at Los Angeles International Airport
in Los Angeles, Friday, March 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
Conservative Republicans, however, were against establishing a
precedent that allows Congress during the yearly appropriations
process to fund some agencies within Homeland Security, but not
others.
“We will fully fund ICE. That is what this fight is about,” Sen.
Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., said. “The border is closing. The next task is
deportation.”
Democrats have refused to provide funding for ICE and the Border
Patrol after the deaths of two Americans protesting the sweeping
immigration crackdown in Minneapolis.
They want federal agents to wear identification, remove their face
masks and refrain from conducting raids around schools, churches or
other sensitive places. Democrats have also pushed for an end of
administrative warrants, insisting that judges sign off before
agents search people's homes or private spaces — something Mullin,
the new DHS secretary, said he is open to considering.
The Republican leadership rift
The rejection of the Senate deal creates a noticeable rift between
Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., who have
mostly worked in tandem this Congress trying to enact Trump's
agenda.
With all Democrats opposed, Thune had to find a solution to the
funding impasse that would win the 60 votes needed to break a
filibuster in the 53-47 Senate.
After more than a week of intense negotiations -- some involving the
White House -- the two sides agreed early Friday to fund most parts
of the Homeland Security Department except for ICE and parts of CBP.
It passed by voice vote with no objections from either side just
after 2 a.m.
Asked if he had cleared the compromise with Johnson, Thune said the
two had texted.
“I don’t know what the House will do,” Thune said.
The White House was silent as senators reviewed the compromise, and
Trump did not weigh in publicly.
The next day, as the deal fell apart in the House, Thune did not
respond to Johnson’s comments that he was left in the dark.
The speaker, asked about a rift with Thune, said Democrats in the
Senate were to blame for the situation.
Airport lines grow as TSA workers endure hardships
The DHS shutdown has resulted in travel delays and even warnings of
airport closures as more TSA workers missing paychecks stopped going
to work. Those workers had already endured the nation's longest
government shutdown last fall.
Multiple airports have been experiencing greater than 40% callout
rates of TSA workers, and nearly 500 of the agency's nearly 50,000
transportation security officers have quit during the shutdown.
Nationwide on Thursday, more than 11.8% of the TSA employees on the
schedule missed work, according to DHS. That is more than 3,450
callouts.
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Associated Press writers Rebecca Santana, Collin Binkley, Mary Clare
Jalonick and Ben Finley in Washington, Lekan Oyekanmi in Houston,
Wyatte Grantham-Philips in New York, Rio Yamat in Las Vegas, Russ
Bynum in Savannah, Georgia, and Gabriela Aoun Angueira in San Diego
contributed to this report.
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